(New York) The prosecutor who convicted the “Central Park five”, since exonerated, has been in the hot seat since the broadcast of a series punch on this case.
In April 1989, in a metropolis plagued by violence, crack and racial tensions, five teenagers – four African-Americans and one Latino -, aged 14 to 16, were arrested and accused of having brutally beaten and raped a white jogger. The victim, a 28-year-old investment banker, is left for dead in a Central Park bush during an evening where dozens of young people intimidated or jostled walkers, cyclists and joggers. She comes out of a coma after 12 days, and has no memory of the assault.
The five teenagers will be found guilty on the sole basis of confessions obtained without the presence of lawyers and withdrawn shortly after. No physical evidence links them to the crime, not even a single strand of DNA. They will be sentenced in 1990 to prison terms ranging from 6 to 13 years.
However, in May 2002, a detainee, Matias Reyes, confessed to being the culprit of the rape of Trisha Meili, the jogger. His DNA matches that found on the victim.
In December of the same year, the Manhattan district attorney’s office exonerated the five teenagers and issued a damning report for those responsible for the investigation.
In 2014, the City of New York paid compensation totaling $ 41 million to the “five of Central Park”, without however admitting its wrongs.
This news item has inspired books and a documentary, The Central Park Five, directed by Ken Burns and released in 2013. But none of these factual accounts will have aroused the emotions and caused the consequences of When They See Us, the new Netflix miniseries from director and documentary filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who dramatized the story by drawing inspiration from “real facts”.
Emotions and consequences that contributed last week to the downfall of a vigilante who became a successful novelist and to the reminder of the role played in this affair by a real estate developer who became President of the United States.
PHOTO CHARLES WENZELBERG, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Linda Fairstein, in March 1988
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The vigilante’s name is Linda Fairstein. A pioneering work, from 1976 to 2002 she headed the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. His work served as an inspiration to the creators of the television series Law & Order : Special Victims Unit. And it has nourished the fabric of some 20 detective novels she’s published since the mid-1990s.
However, last Friday, its publisher – Dutton, a subsidiary of the Penguin Random House group – dumped it, reacting to a campaign launched on social media and accompanied by the hashtag #CancelLindaFairstein. Earlier in the same week, the former prosecutor had decided on her own to quit several boards of directors on which she served, including that of her alma mater, the prestigious Vassar College. According to her, she wanted to spare them from being embroiled in the controversy against her.
In the Netflix miniseries, Linda Fairstein, played by actress Felicity Huffman, is the quintessential villain. “All the black kids who were in the park last night are suspects in this woman’s rape,” she told NYPD detectives at the start of the first of four episodes.
The indiscriminate and racist zeal of the prosecutor becomes that of the detectives, who will convince each of the five arbitrarily arrested “suspects” to betray the others by falsely promising them that they can then return home. As described by DuVernay, the process constitutes an appalling injustice.
After the launch of the miniseries, Linda Fairstein denounced the “packet of lies” of a “terribly irresponsible director”, accusing her of having put words in her mouth and of having distorted the course of the investigation. She also criticized the “lynching mentality” that she says drives her online critics. This denunciation, it must be emphasized, is not lacking in irony, if one refers to the climate which contributed to the arrest of the “Central Park five” and their conviction a year later.
Like the NYPD, Linda Fairstein continues to deny any wrongdoing in this case. After the confession of Matias Reyes, she had notably defended the interrogations of the “suspects” that she had supervised. Yet here is what the Manhattan DA’s office wrote in its 50-page report exonerating the five New Yorkers whose lives had been ransacked:
« [Leurs aveux] differed from each other on the specific details of almost every significant aspect of the crime – who instigated the attack, who knocked down the victim, who stripped her, who restrained her, who raped her, what weapons were used during the assault, and how the order of events occurred. “
The injustice symbolized by this news item has been known for over 16 years. However, she did not prevent Linda Fairstein from taking advantage of her professional expertise to pursue a literary career that made her a rich and admired woman. It took a series of punches to destroy it.
It will undoubtedly take more to undermine the status of the real estate developer who has become president. Donald Trump appears in the second episode of the miniseries, calling for the return of the death penalty to New York at a press conference and in full-page ads in local newspapers.
“I hate these assailants and murderers. They should be forced to suffer, ”he claimed, referring to Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise, who are still awaiting an apology from him.
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Richard Hétu, Special collaboration
Press
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It is a news item on which New York and the United States are unable to draw a line.
In April 1989, in a metropolis plagued by violence, crack and racial tensions, five teenagers – four African-Americans and one Latino -, aged 14 to 16, were arrested and accused of having brutally beaten and raped a white jogger. The victim, a 28-year-old investment banker, is left for dead in a Central Park bush during an evening where dozens of young people intimidated or jostled walkers, cyclists and joggers. She comes out of a coma after 12 days, and has no memory of the assault.
The five teenagers will be found guilty on the sole basis of confessions obtained without the presence of lawyers and withdrawn shortly after. No physical evidence links them to the crime, not even a single strand of DNA. They will be sentenced in 1990 to prison terms ranging from 6 to 13 years.
However, in May 2002, a detainee, Matias Reyes, confessed to being the culprit of the rape of Trisha Meili, the jogger. His DNA matches that found on the victim.
In December of the same year, the Manhattan district attorney’s office exonerated the five teenagers and issued a damning report for those responsible for the investigation.
In 2014, the City of New York paid compensation totaling $ 41 million to the “five of Central Park”, without however admitting its wrongs.
This news item has inspired books and a documentary, The Central Park Five, directed by Ken Burns and released in 2013. But none of these factual accounts will have aroused the emotions and caused the consequences of When They See Us, the new Netflix miniseries from director and documentary filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who dramatized the story by drawing inspiration from “real facts”.
Emotions and consequences that contributed last week to the downfall of a vigilante who became a successful novelist and to the reminder of the role played in this affair by a real estate developer who became President of the United States.
PHOTO CHARLES WENZELBERG, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Linda Fairstein, in March 1988
–
The vigilante’s name is Linda Fairstein. A pioneering work, from 1976 to 2002 she headed the Sex Crimes Unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. His work served as an inspiration to the creators of the television series Law & Order : Special Victims Unit. And it has nourished the fabric of some 20 detective novels she’s published since the mid-1990s.
However, last Friday, its publisher – Dutton, a subsidiary of the Penguin Random House group – dumped it, reacting to a campaign launched on social media and accompanied by the hashtag #CancelLindaFairstein. Earlier in the same week, the former prosecutor had decided on her own to quit several boards of directors on which she served, including that of her alma mater, the prestigious Vassar College. According to her, she wanted to spare them from being embroiled in the controversy against her.
In the Netflix miniseries, Linda Fairstein, played by actress Felicity Huffman, is the quintessential villain. “All the black kids who were in the park last night are suspects in this woman’s rape,” she told NYPD detectives at the start of the first of four episodes.
The indiscriminate and racist zeal of the prosecutor becomes that of the detectives, who will convince each of the five arbitrarily arrested “suspects” to betray the others by falsely promising them that they can then return home. As described by DuVernay, the process constitutes an appalling injustice.
After the launch of the miniseries, Linda Fairstein denounced the “packet of lies” of a “terribly irresponsible director”, accusing her of having put words in her mouth and of having distorted the course of the investigation. She also criticized the “lynching mentality” that she says drives her online critics. This denunciation, it must be emphasized, is not lacking in irony, if one refers to the climate which contributed to the arrest of the “Central Park five” and their conviction a year later.
Like the NYPD, Linda Fairstein continues to deny any wrongdoing in this case. After the confession of Matias Reyes, she had notably defended the interrogations of the “suspects” that she had supervised. Yet here is what the Manhattan DA’s office wrote in its 50-page report exonerating the five New Yorkers whose lives had been ransacked:
« [Leurs aveux] differed from each other on the specific details of almost every significant aspect of the crime – who instigated the attack, who knocked down the victim, who stripped her, who restrained her, who raped her, what weapons were used during the assault, and how the order of events occurred. “
The injustice symbolized by this news item has been known for over 16 years. However, she did not prevent Linda Fairstein from taking advantage of her professional expertise to pursue a literary career that made her a rich and admired woman. It took a series of punches to destroy it.
It will undoubtedly take more to undermine the status of the real estate developer who has become president. Donald Trump appears in the second episode of the miniseries, calling for the return of the death penalty to New York at a press conference and in full-page ads in local newspapers.
“I hate these assailants and murderers. They should be forced to suffer, ”he claimed, referring to Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise, who are still awaiting an apology from him.
Those of Linda Fairstein would also be welcome.
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